The Fantastic Four

Mr. Fantastic, a.k.a. Dr. Reed Richards is considered one of the most intelligent human beings in the known Marvel Universe. The inventions he unveils to the world are nothing short of miraculous, and are often created on the fly while dealing with one criminal or another. Such inventions include alternate dimension gateways, the Fantastic Car, and unstable-molecule uniforms (though the movie explains that these suits were not his creation). If his raw intellect alone wasn’t a force to be reckoned with, Dr. Richards was also endowed with the power of elasticity through spatial cosmic rays. The original comic storyline indicates that he and three other passengers were on a mission in space when they were bombarded by cosmic rays, which fundamentally changed them into super beings with various powers. Deemed the Fantastic Four, they are dedicated to the sanctity of Earth. This seemingly weak superhero team often faces extremely powerful foes, including the malevolent Dr. Doom, and the evil races of aliens named the Skrulls. Let us indulge for a moment in the fantasy that there could be a man as smart as Reed Richards who also has the resources to bring his amazing gizmos to fruitation. The United States government sends him to space on a scientific mission due to his expertise in… well everything. Up to this point there is nothing obscene about the situation, however it is unlikely that the only other passengers would be his wife, brother-in-law, and good friend. Getting past that they are then hit with something called “cosmic rays” which seem to alter their genes somehow. This is where the story gets a little wonky.

Back in the day when the Fantastic Four first appeared, such concepts as “cosmic rays” were completely unknown to the general public. People didn’t know what things like radioactivity, or exposure to certain chemicals would do to a person. Even during World War II there were heinous experiments being performed on men, with the idea that they would be mutated into super beings of a sort. Therefore it was completely feasible that these unknown cosmic rays would randomly mutate a person, and allow him to perform such feats as combusting himself on fire. As I said, Mr. Fantastic was endowed with as special elasticity power, that allows him to stretch himself as though he was made of rubber. With science the way it is today, radioactivity and things like “cosmic rays” is better understood. Let us go through a quick science lesson regarding the properties of rays.

First let us look at light, the “original energy source.” Light is not seen by the naked eye, however we could not see without it. Eminating from the sun, light comes in the form of rays traveling at (you guessed it) the speed of light. Such light rays are broken down into groups, depending on the spectrum. We can see “white light,” which lies somewhere in the middle of the entire spectrum. Beyond this type of light lies the “infrared” and the “ultraviolet” lights. These cannot be seen by the naked eye and are emitted at shorter or larger “wavelengths” or ‘frequencies.” Think of light coming in pulses with specific intervals. If the pulse is significantly slower, then the frequency is lower. These are just a few types of rays of light, however there are also categories other than Ultraviolet, Infrared, or White Light. Such categories are named X-Rays, Microwaves, or even (The Hulk’s) Gamma rays. In certain doses, these rays (or waves) can cause cancer in humans. The next time you go to microwave your leftovers, take a look at the door. It is lined with a type of mesh designed to block microwaves from escaping the unit. Without this mesh the waves have the potential to cause mutations in your genes, thus bringing the possibility of cancerous cells. Don’t worry about your dinner, you won’t be exposed to microwaves by eating the leftovers. Anyway… the point I’m trying to get across, is that exposure to any form of ray, beam, or wave of light will (in the worst case) cause errors in some of your genes, creating cancerous tumours. To gain the ability to stretch himself to the limit, would mean that the cosmic rays caused certain errors in all of Reed’s DNA that allow him to do so. This means that if replicated properly, any human has the potential to gain such power, but you’d have to change every piece of DNA in their body at the same time. Impossible? To our current understanding of genetics and spectronics: YES. But who knows? At one point it was thought impossible to fly. Furthermore, each astronaut in that mission was changed in a different way, and their powers are so different. Why didn’t Sue Storm gain the ability to spontaneously combust? Why doesn’t Reed Richards look like a giant rock of a man? Such observations indicate that there is another element involved in their transformation. Perhaps these “cosmic rays” were the invention of a race of aliens with the intent to change these humans the way they did. These artificially designed rays would have needed to have different properties within, and each astronaut must have been exposed to a different part of the ray. OR perhaps the rays bring out a certain personal quality from within the person. Maybe Sue Storm at the time wished she “wasn’t there” at that moment, or Ben Grimm was wishing he was tougher so that he could survive the experience. So what was Reed thinking? “Man, I wish I was more flexible during sex.”

Well, that was my long winded explanation to my “rays cause cancer, not super powers”
theory. But then again, they are called the Fantastic Four, and the origin of their powers is nothing short of fantastic.